UB"s endowment funds didn"t quite measure up to those of other institutions across the country for the 2002-03 school year, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
While endowments at surveyed American institutions rose an average of 3 percent by June 2003, UB took a $10 million hit, dropping 2.5 percent to $378.4 million. Though this drop was no remedy for the previous year"s $40 million decrease, UB remains 114th in actual endowment size out of 717 institutions, according to the annual survey by the National Association of College and University Business Officers, as stated in The Buffalo News.
Edward P. Schneider, executive director of the UB Foundation, a non-profit fundraising and donation managing organization, said UB does not budget for a specific amount of endowment income every year, because that money is subject to fluxes in the national and local economy.
"(The budget) formula is smoothed out to compensate for the cyclical ups and downs in endowment funds," said Schneider.
Since endowment income comes mainly from invested donations, it is hard to determine the rise and fall of the market beforehand, and the foundation has no solid way of knowing whether 2003-04 will see an increase.
"It will all be dependent on what happens in the market," he said.
However, Schneider said the 114th ranking shows UB"s endowment funds are still holding their own, especially since the survey also considered private schools whose budgets include a much larger percentage of endowment funds.
"UB is not as heavily dependent on endowment as private institutions are," Schneider said.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
